Igor Vereshchagin

Non-Objective Reality

MOSCOW CITY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE
MULTIMEDIA ART MUSEUM, MOSCOW

IGOR VERESHCHAGIN
NON-OBJECTIVE REALITY
15 February 2019 — 14 April 2019

Strategic partner: Tele 2
Curator: Nina Levitina

As part of the XI Moscow International Biennale ‘Fashion and Style in Photography-2019’, the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents ‘Non-Objective Reality’, an exhibition by celebrated Russian photographer Igor Vereshchagin.

Igor Vereshchagin is 66 years old. Since taking his first snapshot at the age of 5 he has never put down the camera. Besides photography, Vereshchagin’s second passion is music. The Beatles, Rolling Stones and other famous rock groups of that time became his idols when he was still a child. After graduating from the Tomsk Institute of Radio Electronics and Electronic Technology, Igor Vereshchagin worked for several years at the Bratsk Aluminium Plant computing centre and then became head of its photo service. He produced thousands of negatives of everyday life. Later, in 1994, he relocated to Moscow, where he worked as a photographer, mainly taking pictures of musicians. He became exclusive photographer on all of Garik Sukachov’s films, shooting big-name stars such as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Chuck Berry, Robert Plant, Iggy Pop, Annie Leibovitz, Boris Grebenshchikov, etc.

When the Rolling Stones visited Moscow in 1998, Igor Vereshchagin acted as the group’s official tour photographer. His photographs have featured in Russian and foreign publications, and on the record covers of many musicians, as well as decorating New York music clubs. Only in 2017 did the photographer have his first exhibition as part of the X Moscow International Biennale of Fashion and Style in Photography 2017, at the initiative of producer Sergey Smolin.

Vereshchagin is a uniquely unassuming artist, an observer and photographer for more than 20 years. At an exhibition in the Moscow House of Photography (MAMM) showcasing the great Elliott Erwitt, Vereshchagin presented him with a visiting card that the legendary Magnum agency photographer had given to his father during his tour of the Soviet Union way back in the 60s. Vereshchagin had never shown his remarkable photographs in the museum and neither the director nor museum curators had seen them. Nonetheless, his ‘Given & Stolen’ exhibition in 2017, for which a superb book was published, was a resounding success.

As part of the XI Moscow International Biennale of Fashion and Style in Photography 2019, the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents Igor Vereshchagin’s new exhibition ‘Non-Objective Reality’, which includes his images related to music and, most importantly, the photographer’s work from the 1970s. This is a new chapter in the history of Russia in photographs, about a period which today, half a century later, we should re-evaluate. ‘Past in the Future’, ‘Future in the Past’ — this is an era that many are nostalgic about right now in Russia, although others see the period of stagnation as time stolen from their lives.

Vereshchagin is one of the characters in the six-part documentary film ‘Long Playing’ (directed by Stephen Crisman; produced by Duncan Heath (ITG), Michael Cascio and Sergey Smolin), which is currently being shot in the USA and UK.